Microsoft spent a huge sum of money to acquire Activision Blizzard, and now it seems that it has finally received a pretty good return! Blizzard Entertainment has reportedly become Xbox’s best-performing studio. Blizzard president Johanna Faries revealed in an internal email that the company ended FY26 as the “top-performing studio” in the Xbox Studios division, and this fiscal year was also the third-highest revenue performance in Blizzard’s history.
Overwatch and Diablo hold up the sky
Blizzard was able to reach the first place this time mainly because of its several long-term operating IPs. Among them, the “Overwatch” and “Diablo” series continue to contribute revenue and player activity, making Blizzard perform very prominently in the entire first-party studio system of Xbox. Especially in the context of Microsoft’s continuous adjustments to its Xbox business, layoffs and restructuring in recent years, Blizzard has actually delivered a good report card. This contrast is indeed interesting.
After the acquisition, Blizzard became an honor student?
Microsoft completed the acquisition of Activision Blizzard for approximately US$69 billion in 2023, and now owns multiple large game departments including Blizzard, Activision, Bethesda, and Xbox Game Studios. And now that Blizzard has rushed directly to Top Performing Studio, it also means that this super acquisition is producing some results that satisfy Microsoft, at least in terms of business performance.
Of course, this does not mean that all Blizzard projects have been smooth sailing, but at least judging from the internal evaluations disclosed so far, this studio that once made Microsoft pay sky-high prices has now become a top student in the Xbox camp.